| Cult of Mac

Gamers rejoice! Mythic Quest season 3 premieres Nov. 11

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Rob McElhenney and Charlotte Nicdao in “Mythic Quest” season three, premiering fall 2022 on Apple TV+.
Rob McElhenney and Charlotte Nicdao return for season three of the gamer-oriented comedy.
Photo: Apple TV+

Gamer-themed workplace comedy Mythic Quest returns to Apple TV+ on November 11. That’s the date the third season of the hilarious show premieres, Apple said Thursday.

Apple’s streaming video service also announced the launch dates for new seasons of Slow Horses and Little America.

The 5 best comedies on Apple TV+

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Best comedies on Apple TV+: Itching for a laugh?
Itchin' for a laugh? These Apple TV+ comedies deliver.
Photos: Apple TV+

Apple TV+ is known perhaps first and foremost for its international hit Ted Lasso. But that heartwarming show about a bumbling soccer coach with a positivity streak a mile wide only scratches the surface of the streamer’s burgeoning comedy roster.

Comedy veterans and unlikely newcomers alike staked out spots in the ever-growing Apple TV+ lineup, offering laughs for the cost of emotional engagement with some deeply wounded and weird characters.

Ultimately, the best comedies on Apple TV+ are the ones that hurt a little.

Slow Horses finishes strong and we can’t wait for next season [Apple TV+ recap]

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Slow Horses season finale recap: The Slow Horses race to track down kidnappers in a rip-roaring season finale.
The Slow Horses race to track down kidnappers in a rip-roaring season finale.
Photo: Apple TV+

Apple TV+ spy thriller/comedy Slow Horses crosses the finish line of its fine first season this week. The show horses chases down its kidnapping rogues as Lamb gains the upper hand, and Taverner gets desperate. The last-minute rescue operation comes down to blind luck, determination, and no small amount of heroic stupidity.

The show’s efficient plotting and knee-deep characterizations pay off in a desperate last act that uses every agonizing second to its advantage. The show makes a strong case for its next season — and for its own place in the roster of the best Apple TV+ shows yet.

Get into Slow Horses on Apple TV+ with this spy slang glossary

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"Slow Horses" on Apple TV+ features Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, plus a lot of muttered words and phrases you might need help understanding.
Photo: Apple TV+

There’s nothing like discovering a truly rich and deep source of entertainment — like a darkly amusing TV series that you find out is made from a whole lineup of engrossing books that you at least aspire to read. Such is the case with Slow Horses on Apple TV+, adapted from a series of spy-thriller novels by Mick Herron.

The dozen books and subsequent TV show rise from a complex world of spy circles with Cold War underpinnings leading into and out of MI5. That’s the U.K.’s primary security agency, sort of like the FBI in the U.S. In the story, a dysfunctional team of MI5 agents relegated to “Slough House” become embroiled in matters of national security, often at odds with M15 first-stringers.

Even if you’ve got a good ear for U.K. and European accents, you may still find yourself baffled by the in-jokes, shop talk and slang coming out of the characters’ mouths. Good thing there are helpful reference materials out there, like a whole glossary of terms.

Slow Horses doubles down on misdirection and suspense [Apple TV+ recap]

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Slow Horses recap: River Cartwright (played by Jack Lowdon) searches for a crucial clue.
River Cartwright (played by Jack Lowdon) searches for a crucial piece of evidence.
Photo: Apple TV+

Apple TV+ spy series Slow Horses gets ready for the climactic showdown between MI5, Jackson Lamb’s misfit spies at Slough House and the kidnappers. Lamb hatches a plan to acquire some crucial evidence, but it involves subterfuge, bombs and the music of The Proclaimers.

Are these guys as clever as they pretend to be? The penultimate episode of season one delivers high highs and no lows — everything an hour of TV should be.

Slow Horses turns up the heat in a real potboiler [Apple TV+ recap]

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Slow Horses recap
Things turn deadly serious this week, but thankfully there's still room for humor in this spy series.
Photo: Apple TV+

Slough House’s Slow Horses are on the run in this week’s installment of the Apple TV+ dark comedy about rogue failed spies working at the bottom of the British intelligence circus.

Slough House chief Jackson Lamb makes a Faustian bargain with Standish. River can’t help but check on Sid. Min’s crush on Louisa deepens. Struan gets picked up. Ho is in the wind. And everyone’s afraid of Taverner.

It’s another cracking potboiler of an episode this week as the noose tightens around everyone.

These 3 hits prove Apple TV+ is a serious streaming contender

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3 hits show Apple TV+ is now a serious streaming contender
CODA, Slow Horses and Severance are popular because they are some of the best streaming shows available.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

CODA, Severance and Slow Horses all showed up in this week’s top 10 most-watched movies and TV shows. Each is from Apple TV+, and they show the streaming service has become a strong competitor against Netflix, Hulu and Disney+.

Perhaps this will silence any lingering doubts about Apple’s foray into film and TV.

Slow Horses picks up the pace this week [Apple TV+ recap]

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Slow Horses recap: Slough House's reject spies get into some serious business this week.
Slough House's reject spies get into some serious business this week.
Photo: Apple TV+

Slow Horses enters the thick of its spy games this week in an excellent third episode. Jackson Lamb is in Dutch with M15 chief Diana Taverner just as she screws up an important operation — and implicates him and his whole team at Slough House, the reject pile of the British intelligence service.

As a result, they enter into a sleazy bargain to clean up the mess together. Of course, nothing’s ever as easy as it seems when your business is underhanded espionage. The pace and the tension ratchet up for a marvelous little installment of this new spy show on Apple TV+.

Spy series Slow Horses comes out of the gate fast and sarcastic [Apple TV+ recap]

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Slow Horses recap: Gary Oldman plays Jackson Lamb, head of a group of screwup spies in new thriller series Slow Horses.
Gary Oldman plays Jackson Lamb, head of a group of screwup spies, in new thriller series Slow Horses.
Photo: Apple TV+

Slow Horses, based on the first book in the Slough House series by author Mick Herron, is the newest addition to the Apple TV+ roster of thrillers.

In the series, which premieres Friday, Gary Oldman plays Jackson Lamb, the leader of a group of misfit spies who work cases in secret while MI5 looks down its nose at the scrubs.

Directed by James Hawes and created by Will Smith (no, not that Will Smith), the first two episodes of this oddball spy show prove reasonably diverting.

Remedial MI5 agents bumble and thrill in Slow Horses Apple TV+ trailer

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Actor Gary Oldman plays the fairly dissipated man in charge of the MI5 unit.
Actor Gary Oldman plays the fairly dissipated man in charge of the MI5 unit.
Photo: Apple TV+

Apple TV+ released its first trailer for Slow Horses, its darkly comic espionage thriller series starring Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas. And judging by the 2+ minute preview, the show looks like it will be both hilarious and thrilling — a rare feat — as it depicts the fates of “screw-up” MI5 agents sent to “Slough House.”

“Bringing you up to speed’s like trying to explain Norway to a dog,” section chief Jackson Lamb (Oldman) says to a group of his hapless charges at one point. The scene is intercut with the Scott Thomas character explaining, with characteristic elegance and wit, that no agent has ever returned from Slough House to respectable duty.